title: In situ polymerized superhydrophobic and superoleophilic nanofibrous membranes for gravity driven oil-water separation.
abstract: Creating an efficient, cost-effective method that can provide simple, practical and high-throughput separation of oil-water mixtures has proved extremely challenging. This work responds to these challenges by designing, fabricating and evaluating a novel fluorinated polybenzoxazine (F-PBZ) modified nanofibrous membrane optimized to achieve gravity driven oil-water separation. The membrane design is then realized by a facile combination of electrospun poly(m-phenylene isophthalamide) (PMIA) nanofibers and an in situ polymerized F-PBZ functional layer incorporating SiO2 nanoparticles (SiO2 NPs). By employing the F-PBZ/SiO2 NP modification, the pristine hydrophilic PMIA nanofibrous membranes are endowed with promising superhydrophobicity with a water contact angle of 161° and superoleophilicity with an oil contact angle of 0°. This new membrane shows high thermal stability (350 °C) and good repellency to hot water (80 °C), and achieves an excellent mechanical strength of 40.8 MPa. Furthermore, the as-prepared membranes exhibited fast and efficient separation of oil-water mixtures by a solely gravity driven process, which makes them good candidates for industrial oil-polluted water treatments and oil spill cleanup, and also provided new insights into the design and development of functional nanofibrous membranes through F-PBZ modification.
authors.affiliation: College of Textiles, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, China. binding@dhu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xiaomin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Si
authors.forename: Jianlong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ge
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.forename: Lifang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Gang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Wenjing
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: Jianyong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yu
mesh_terms: D000577:Amides / Q000737:chemistry; D057927:Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions; D057139:Nanofibers / Q000737:chemistry*; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry; D009821:Oils / Q000737:chemistry*; D010795:Phthalic Acids / Q000737:chemistry; D012822:Silicon Dioxide / Q000737:chemistry; D013696:Temperature; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D000577:Amides; D009821:Oils; D010795:Phthalic Acids; C500111:poly(m-phenyleneisophthalamide); D014867:Water; D012822:Silicon Dioxide